Monaco Thursday quotes: McLaren

Heikki Kovalainen - 7th: "Lots of traffic today - but that's normal for Monaco. Today's running tells us we'll be more competitive here. The team has worked very well and my car was in good shape straight away this morning. The most important thing is that we've made consistent improvements - we've made good progress on the set-up and I've been dialling myself further into the car and the track on each run. While our car seems to behave well around here, there's still some work to do - we won't be able to do miracles over the weekend."

Martin Whitmarsh - team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes: "The whole team loves the thrill and tension of the Monaco weekend and today's performance has left us feeling encouraged that we will have another successful weekend in the principality. Both Lewis and Heikki have really dived into the challenge, both producing some excellent times and, most importantly, helping to refine our technical package ahead of Saturday's crucial qualifying session and the race itself. We go into Saturday feeling extremely positive about getting a strong result from both drivers."

Norbert Haug - vice-president, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: "A good first day on this challenging track which saw Vodafone McLaren Mercedes winning on the last two occasions. It is too early to know where we will be in qualifying compared to our competitors, but Lewis and Heikki should hopefully be in better shape than at previous races. The car so far just looks better on this track and our mechanical and aerodynamic improvements seem to help here around as well as our KERS hybrid. Having said that, I do not see us in the role of the favourites like in previous years when we won six grands prix out of 11 since McLaren-Mercedes' maiden win in 1998."